gov.uk/government/news/what...
My prescriptions tell me I need a medication review. I want to talk to someone about the diarrhoea I get after taking AA and the mild heartburn I get occasionally now I'm on omeprazole. Last year a pharmacist phoned and did a thorough review. Now I'm told they don't do this any more. I have to make a doctor's appointment by phoning at 8am and repeatedly trying to get through, until - oh, all the appointments have gone!
Whinge over.
Pharmacies are being tasked with other duties - according to this [in yesterday's news]... so we'll see [or not as the case may be] -
Pharmacies will take on the prescribing of drugs for seven common ailments:
earache
sore throat
sinusitis
impetigo
shingles
infected insect bites
uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women
Women will be able to get oral contraceptive pills direct from pharmacies too.
As Dr David Lloyd said this morning on SKy News - there is a major shortage of pharmacists too ...
Yes, and the ones we have are overworked. There's usually one pharmacist in, the other 3 people (there's not enough room for any more) serve those who don't need advice.
Not to mention actual pharmacy buildings to house them, which have been closing down. I notice that the GPs are starting to panic and are saying that the pharmacists will oversubscribe antibiotics etc as they won’t know what to do. The truth is they will probably do a much better job than a lot of the GPs!
I hear you Broseley.
in recent years some OTC and POM medicines that contained antibiotics have been withdrawn or discontinued for fear of overuse or misuse. Thyrozet throat lozenges are a good example of one withdrawn product. Yet now government wants to give pharmacists more power to prescribe; not that I disagree with this but why withdrawn effective products and then have to empower pharmacists to help instead
Left hand, right hand, no idea!
I have a friend who works in this area, putting these changes into place. She says it just hasn't been thought through. The pharmacists are generally willing. There just isn't enough money to do it.
There just isn't enough money to do it.
There never is! As for being thought through? Fat chance.
It's all a mess as we all know. even the RCGPs are calling out the b*llshit. Boris aid he was getting 6000 more GPS, turns out there are about 2000, and they're nearly all registrar trainees who actually need guidance and support from existing GPs, increasing their workload. Also I'm told by a friend who's a GP that the government allocates about £60 a year per patient on a practice list, which is about the cost of 2 appointments going by the fact private GPs charge £30-50 an appointment. Most older patients and those with long-term chronic conditions need a lot more than that, so where is the extra money going to come from? If I was a cynical person : I'd think there was a cunning plan to drive more people to private GPs, which is bizare as GPs are all private businesses anyway, with just one customer the NHS. Could the thinking possibly be that better the money comes directly from private patients than from the government?
It's all a conspiracy, with that and the rising pension age, to kill us all off before we get too old and cost them more money!
As Ben Elton used to say, oops best not get all political. It is going to impact the likes of us with chronic conditions more and more thugh, and I do worry if things are already bad now
Yes best not to think too much
Hi I cannot believe my 
Should I see a Rheumatologist?
I feel they don't believe me!!!!!!!!
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